


Happy Birthday

by Notsohappycamper



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, The Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:13:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5307059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsohappycamper/pseuds/Notsohappycamper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the Sole Survivor’s birthday, and some of her friends are determined to show their collective love for her. Very determined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday

“Oh, shut the hell up, you Power Armor, gear-head, stupid-ass lookin’ mother-”

“Okay, okay!” Piper leaped to her feet, holding her arms out. “I really think we should be focusing on-”

“I don’t have to sit here and take this from this _abomination_. When the preparations are complete, you know where to find me.”

“Danse, please. No one is trying to upset you. Let’s just-”

“ _I’m_ trying to upset him!” Hancock barked out, watching Danse haul his bulky, armored body up from the ground where they were sitting in a loose circle in the garage of the Red Rocket Station and planning.

Well, some of them were sitting. Dogmeat was outside roaming around in the dirt with Strong at his side, Codsworth was in the back room tidying up with Curie, Deacon was god knows where, and Nick was lingering in the doorway and watching the three young hooligans in the circle with vague disapproval.

“Sock ‘em where it hurts, Hancock!” Cait cheered, sticking her head in from the front room, where she stood chatting up Preston, who’d never looked more uncomfortable to be in a space alone with the Irish brawler.

“No. No, let’s not do that,” Piper suggested sternly, putting a hand on Danse’s armored wrist, though it didn’t do much. He glanced down at it before looking at her face, his eyebrows furrowed. She sighed heavily.

“I already have my own personal occasion planned for the birthday girl if, or should I say when, this little gathering doesn’t work out,” Nick muttered from the doorway. “So I’m not too bothered by all the bickering and procrastination, but for your own benefit, I think we should be getting down to business pretty soon here.”

“You what!?” Piper squawked, outraged. “You’re having your own party, Nick?! That’s not allowed!”

“Say who, Ms. Wright?”

“Says... Says everyone!”

“May I take my leave now?” Danse asked, still gazing down at Piper’s small hand on his arm like he was looking down at a bloated ghoul carcass.

“Fine. Okay, fine. If you want to head outside with those two pals, be my guest.”

Danse turned his head and gazed out at Strong and Dogmeat practically frolicking together out by the gas pumps. “Ugh...” Then he turned back around and looked down at Hancock. “....Ugh.”

“Just sit down, ya hunk a lead,” Piper urged, guiding him back to the circle.

Because there were only three making up the circle in front of the Power Armor stand, Danse was either stuck sitting beside Hancock or directly in front of him. He wandered back over to the sitting ghoul with a sour frown on his lips. “....Scoot over.”

Hancock made an effort of scooting about 1 centimeter to his left before looking up and grinning. Piper sighed for what felt like the thousandth time to her that day and settled down beside Hancock, pointing Danse to the spot beside her like she was trying to make a child sit down to eat his vegetables. The Paladin settled back down with quite a childish pout to match.

“Well, now you’re just sitting in a straight line. That doesn’t seem very effective,” Nick piped up from the doorway, obviously trying to hold down his amusement. All three glared up at him.

Curie wandered in from the back room where she had been chatting with Codsworth about possible decorations and peeked over Nick’s shoulder, also unintentionally getting the brunt of the glares. “I have wonderful news! Monsieur Codsworth and I have found the most colorful array of- oh. I. Should go.” And with that she turned and slid back out of view.

“Shall we begin brainstorming gift ideas, or are we going to be sitting around wasting more daylight?” Danse asked, staring in front of him out the open garage door.

The reporter beside him glanced over. “Well, yeah, that’s kind of what we were getting to before-”

“I’m just sayin’. I am not cool with gettin’ her a set of custom ‘Power Armor’, no matter what the tin can says,” Hancock muttered, plucking a cigarette from his jacket pocket.

When Danse’s eyebrow twitched, Piper practically threw herself into the conversation before he could open his mouth. “Okay, cool, that’s cool, that’s great! I agree, actually. I think it should be something that we can all stand behind.”

“You don’t just stand behind Power Armor...” Danse muttered to himself. “You can also stand IN it...”

Piper could only shake her head, resisting the urge to bring her hand to her face.

“How about some kind of food? Everyone loves food,” Nick offered, watching Cait make a game out of seeing how close she could lean to Preston before he took a step back.

“But who the hell of us knows how to cook?” Hancock chuckled, puffing smoke into the air.

“Hey,” Piper spoke up, offended, “I know how to make a pretty mean Sweet Roll.”

“Where Mack Ree Dee?!” Strong yelled suddenly, damn near appearing out of nowhere in front of the garage.

Everyone flinched and looked up at him.

“Uh. He’s not back yet, big guy,” Hancock stumbled out, almost dropping his cigarette.

Apparently satisfied with that answer, Strong nodded and turned away, walking back over to Dogmeat and plopping back down on the ground beside him. Dogmeat gazed up at him, wagging his tail and bounding in circles around the mutant, happier than a clam.

“Like peas in a pod, those two,” Cait smirked, eyeing the pair through the front window.

“Guys, really! MacCready’s gonna be back with Blue any minute now! We gotta have _some_ ideas. It’s her freakin’ 211th birthday for cryin’ out loud!” Piper stressed, panicking now.

“I mean, I got a couple chems in my pocket...” Hancock trailed off, and Danse sighed so unnecessarily loud that he almost fell into a coughing fit. Hancock leaned forward around Piper to raise a hairless eyebrow at him.

“Strong found gift for human.”

Strong stood back at the open garage door, holding Dogmeat’s squirming body under one arm. The dog’s excited tail repeatedly smacked against Strong’s side as he panted and looked at the three in front of him.

“Strong, Blue already has that,” Piper explained through gritted teeth, beyond losing her cool.

Dogmeat barked happily and escaped from Strong’s hold, bouncing back towards the grass while Strong grunted and turned to hurry after him.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” Piper ranted now, pushing herself to her feet and pacing in the middle of the garage. “This is going to be such a disaster...”

Now with nothing between them, Hancock and Danse glanced to each other awkwardly before looking in opposite directions.

“Well, hell yeah it’s gonna be a disaster. That’s what’s gonna make it so fun!” Deacon spouted from the corner of the garage, where he was leaning against the wall by the open doorway.

“Ah!” Piper screamed, tripping over her feet, ending her pacing marathon, and making her almost fall over onto Danse’s lap. Danse leaned forward and kept an armored hand on her lower back to support her, also looking alarmed at Deacon’s presence. “Where the hell did you come from!? When did you- How-”

“C’mon, I’ve been here for about 5 minutes, Pipes. Really didn’t notice me?”

“Ugh. Stupid spies...” she muttered, fixing her hat and glancing back to Danse in thanks.

“So yeah, anyway, this entire thing is gonna blow like nobody’s business. That’s pretty much why I’m here,” Deacon continued, strutting over to fill the space between Hancock and Danse, to which they both looked grateful for.

“Yeah, no,” Piper scolded, with her hands on her hips. “It’s gonna be amazing. Best birthday ever!” Then she sighed. “If only we had some ideas...”

Strong’s large body thudded back up beside her, looking around. His eyes honed in on the new person and stared at Deacon. Deacon looked back for a bit before giving a small wave of his hand in greeting, to which Strong nodded to.

“Strong hear yelling. Humans kill?”

“No. Humans no kill,” Piper reassured exhaustedly. “No kill.”

“Ahem, guys. I think we’ll be expecting a new arrival soon,” Nick warned from the door, leaning to look out the front window and down the road.

Piper’s hands flew to her hat, and she ran over and nudged Nick out of the way to look for herself. “Nooooooo! Dammit! We’re so done for! I’m sorry, Blue...”

“Re-laaaax,” Hancock eased behind her. “If I know anything about my girl, she’ll love the fact that we even remembered her birthday in the first place. Doesn’t take much to please her.”

“Yeah,” Deacon agreed, crossing his legs and leaning back. “Pretty sure I could get her a dead mole rat and she’d squeal ‘Aww, for me??’”

“The two of you couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Danse interjected, his voice deep, stern, and serious. “She can recognize something of quality when she sees it.”

“Explains why she doesn’t take you out with her much...” Hancock muttered around his cig, issuing a laugh from Deacon which he poorly covered up with a cough.

Danse looked over slowly, like he couldn’t spare the time of day to even consider the comment. “Excuse me? Care to say that a little louder, freak?”

“Uh. Guys. What’s.. Heh. What’s going on in here?”

They all looked up, all those in the garage and the doorway, as Cait and Preston peeked in, Codsworth and Curie scooted up beside them, and Dogmeat came running excitedly.

The Sole Survivor stood just outside the wide garage door, hauling a backpack of goodies and common household items alike, smiling and leaning over to give Dogmeat a pat, while MacCready stood looking over her shoulder with the physical embodiment of “What the hell did you guys do, what is happening, how did you waste so much time” written all over his shocked face.

“Ah... Um. Uh,” Piper stuttered out, excuses and last minute gift ideas racing through her mind. “We... Uh... You see-”

“Happy Birfday, human,” Strong grunted out simply, looking down at the birthday girl.

The grin that spread over her face in response, her eyes going to each single person in the room and in the doorway, made every single one of their hearts melt when they saw it. Piper’s shoulders relaxed, as she smiled back and sighed in relief.

She saw MacCready visually relax as well, putting his hands on the birthday girl’s shoulders and easing her into the room overflowing with her friends. “Go on. Don’t be shy.”

The woman under his hands looked around in wonder and pure happiness. “Guys...” she whispered, obviously taken with emotion. “You didn’t have to... You didn’t even have to remember...”

“How could we forget, sister?” Hancock teased with a smirk, pushing himself to his feet. The two other men to his side did the same as well.

“You deserve it, soldier,” Danse said in earnest.

“If you think we’d forget, you must not think very highly of us,” Deacon joked to her with smile.

“Ah, there she is. The special girl herself,” Nick remarked fondly, taking a step closer.

“Mademoiselle!” Curie chirped from behind him, pushing her way forward.

“Happy Birthday, General,” Preston offered with a tip of his head, also squeezing into the garage.

“Oh hell. And we don’t even have the drinks ready yet!” Cait cried from behind him.

Two of Codsworth’s large eyes peeked up over her shoulder. “Oh, mum, I’m so pleased you’ve returned!”

Dogmeat barked in agreement, tail waving wildly as he sat by her feet like a good boy.

“Oh geeze...” Piper gushed finally, with a smile on her face that made her cheeks sore. “Yeah. Happy Birthday, Blue.”

The Sole Survivor looked to each of them as they spoke, her smile getting warmer and warmer, until moisture had gathered in the corners of her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand, and MacCready patted her shoulder in comfort.

“Guys...” she whispered again. She’d never felt so loved before. Not in her entire 211 years of living. Nothing could make her feel this way. Looking around at each of them, her heart felt like it was going to burst. “I... I don’t know what to say... Just... Thank you all... So much. I... I don’t...”

As she set down her bag of junk and they all started to crowd around her, gushing and offering to help and ranting about what they had planned, Hancock huffed and elbowed Danse on his power-armored side. “Told ya she’d just be happy we remembered,” he bragged with a cocky grin. With that, he ambled over to the large group, dropping his cigarette as he turned.

Danse sighed, shook his head, and walked over to join his friends as well, stepping on the lit cigarette as he passed by to put out the lingering flame.


End file.
